GAO examines Limerick nuke plant's evacuation plan

LIMERICK — Exelon Nuclear’s Limerick Generating Station is one of four nuclear plants being profiled by the federal Government Accountability Office’s examination of disaster evacuation plans.

A GAO team of investigators was at the plant Tuesday “as part of ongoing work looking at evacuation procedures in case of an incident at a U.S. nuclear power plant,” GAO spokesman Ned Griffith wrote in an e-mail to The Mercury.

That examination comes a year after U.S. Sen. Robert Casey, D-Pa., asked for a GAO investigation of “whether evacuation planning has kept pace with population growth and increased power levels around nuclear plants,” according to a 2011 report in the Associated Press.

“I’m pleased that the GAO continues to move forward with their study of nuclear evacuation procedures,” Casey said in a statement provided to The Mercury by his office.

As The Mercury reported last year, according to data assembled by the Associated Press, the population in a 10-mile radius around the Limerick nuclear plant has increased by 45 percent since 1990 — from 178,047 to 257,625.

That’s an increase of nearly 80,000 people.

And in a 50-mile radius — the region evacuated during the Fukushima disaster in Japan — the population around Limerick has increased by more than 855,000 since 1990.

That’s a 12 percent increase.

That puts Limerick about in the middle of population increases near nuclear power plants around the country, according to the AP data.

“I called on the GAO to conduct this study because Pennsylvanians living near nuclear plants have a right to know that safety procedures and evacuation planning are in place in case of emergency,” Casey said in his statement.

Exelon officials insist the increases in population are taken into account as the emergency evacuation plans the Exelon staff updates are reviewed, something that happens constantly in some form or another.

However, last year, Ruth Miller, deputy press secretary for the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency, told The Mercury that while the evacuation plan for Limerick was last updated in 2008, acknowledged that “there have been no serious changes to evacuation routes since they were first devised.”

Dana Melia, communications director for the plant, wrote in an e-mail to The Mercury that Tuesday’s visit by the GAO was “part of an industry-wide review of emergency planning efforts underway at US commercial nuclear power plants.”

She wrote that “Limerick is one of four nuclear plants included in the review and GAO staff met with representatives from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency and local emergency responders and plant personnel.”

“The GAO team saw first hand how Limerick’s responsive and scalable emergency plan is frequently tested to ensure that it can protect the health and safety of the public,” Melia wrote.

She added that “Limerick’s emergency plan incorporates technological advances and lessons learned from recent events. As an example, all 165 of Limerick’s emergency sirens were recently replaced with state of the art technology that includes battery back ups.”

Griffith wrote that the GAO effort has three primary areas of inquiry.

1) “What are the roles and responsibilities of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and state and local entities in evacuation planning for U.S. nuclear power plants?”

2) “How do NRC and FEMA perform their evacuation planning roles and responsibilities?

3) “How do NRC and FEMA help communicate evacuation plans and the risks associated with a potential nuclear power plant accident to the public?”

He said the GAO expects to issue a report on their findings “early next year.”

About the Author

Evan Brandt has worked for The Mercury since November 1997. His beat includes Pottstown, the surrounding townships and the Pottstown and Pottsgrove school districts, as well as other varied general topics like politics, the environment and education. Reach the author at ebrandt@pottsmerc.com
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